※The sale of original goods has ended.

At THE KNOT, we value our relationships with our artists.
This is the first attempt to have such a project across all four hotels since the THE KNOT brand started. Each THE KNOT (Yokohama, Shinjuku, Sapporo, Hiroshima) was involved in the same project: to produce masks with artwork from local artists.

About artist mask of TOKYO Shinjuku

■ Profile
Yusuke Oishi (a.k.a. MARCOMONK)
Born in Hakodate, Hokkaido in 1980. Lives in Tokyo. After finishing high school, he surrounded himself in Sapporo street culture, before moving to Tokyo in 1996. He started working in photography in 2008, video in 2010, and in 2020 he started to teach himself the art of collage. In 2018 he published a photobook called LIFE THROUGH MY EYES, which captures everyday life in New York City. He is working across a variety of areas both in Japan an abroad, including fashion, magazines, and advertisements. His works leave lingering memories that were captured in just one short moment.

Instagram: @yusuke_oishi_marcomonk @marcomonk8

■ About this Work
Name: no name
Material: plain matte paper
Comments: I spent less that eight years in Sapporo, but every time I go back I take lots of photos. This work is representative of my experiences in Sapporo, both from using the images I have taken there but also thinks that make me think of the city.

■ Thoughts on THE KNOT and the Collaboration With Us
I started working on collage during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had the time and the materials so I thought I would challenge myself. I told people around me what I was doing and it sort of just kept going from there. When I was contacted by THE KNOT, I was really happy because this my work was judged on it own merit separately from my career. Even though I no longer live in Hokkaido, I put lots of energy into this work to represent the place I was born and raised.

Next is tote bag of TOKYO Shinjuku.

■ Profile
Yuya Suzuki
Born in Fukushima City in 1983. Graduated from Nihon University College of Art, Department of Fine Arts in 2007. In recent years, he has developed a drawing project called “archegraph study”, based on observations of the urban environment in cities in Asia and Europe. Received an overseas training grant from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and from 2020 has been based in Germany.

Major exhibitions include “archegraph study_Berlin” (Migrant Bird space, Berlin, 2020), “Phantoms Agora” (Xiaolong Children’s Museum, Tainan, 2019), “Futuristic Allegory” (Migrant Bird Space, Beijing, 2019), “archegraph study_Tainan” (Absolute Space, Tainan, 2018), “archegraph study_Seoul” (salon cojica, Sapporo, 2017), “Assembly Nagoya 2016” (Nagoya Meiko District, 2016), Sapporo International Art Festival 2014 (500m Museum, Sapporo, 2014), “Becoming Undone” (Kleiner salon, Berlin, 2014) “Jeune Creation 2013” (Saint Quatre, Paris), and more.

Instagram ＠uyasuzuki

■ About the Piece on the Tote
Title: archegraph study_Berlin
Materials: Colored pencils, paper
Comments: The image printed on the back was originally an abstraction of the fragmentary elements of the cityscape. By printing this image on a bag, the image once extracted from reality, now circulates in that space and life once again. I created it with the idea of having it flow as a part of the cityscape.

■ Thoughts on THE KNOT and the Collaboration With Us
When I heard about the collaboration, I thought about a hotel I had stayed at in Taiwan who also collaborated with artists to make bags. My image of the hotel was formed alongside the image of the bag, which left a lasting positive impression. At that time, I felt that hotels and art seemed to not closely related, but that there might be some type of image that can connect them.

Art, like hotels, can shape experiences. Of course, art and hotels may not be similar, but I feel that there may be a surprising chemical reaction when products from seemingly completely different industries are combined. So in that sense, I thought this collaboration offered by THE KNOT was a really fresh idea.

Please ask reception desk staff if you want to buy them.